"I get knocked down, but I get up again"

I saw on a fellow blogger’s site that she had made over $1000USD on a site called “Medium” where her blogs earnt money.

The 5-year-old that lives in my heart was all “Yaaaasss!!! MONEEEEEEEYYYY” so of course, I joined.

There’s a $5.00 a month membership fee and it’s definitely a different world to WordPress – it’s a jungle out there, writers! Because it’s monetised, the competition is FIERCE! You have to be at the top of your game to get a reader to click on your article, to read it and to ‘clap’ for it. Clapping on Medium is not like “liking” something -it’s actually a rating system. If someone really likes your article, they’ll clap 50 times for it. If someone reads it and isn’t impressed, they might leave ONE clap and a comment with feedback.

Apparently the way to ‘stand out’ above other writers is to be published on the many Medium online publications – like magazines.

Praise God, I’ve been published in 3 different publications and an article I wrote on survival tactics for a toxic office gained 800 reads, over 300 ‘fans’ and about 1000 claps. That’s where the deposit for $10.25USD came from in my bank account.

Go me.

Haha.

Only $999.00USD to go, eh?

Seeing the caliber of the other articles online and that other writers have ‘fans’/’followers’ in droves – like 70,000 – 250,000 each – where in a month, I’ve amassed a grand total of about 400 – makes me feel discouraged in a way. I am a tiny fish in a huge ocean of much prettier, smarter fish.

I have so far to go.

But I’m determined to make it on Medium. I’m learning a lot while I’m there and even though I basically earned enough to pay my month’s membership and buy a hot chocolate or a cookie at the cafeteria next door, I will still consider it a win! I’m a paid writer, guys! This is awesome!

Having to write news-worthy articles rather than just literally have an online journal/diary like I do here in WordPress (I love just being able to TALK to you guys about anything I’m going through) makes me more aware of my spelling, sentence structure, paragraphs, “catchy headlines” and sticking to a word count.

It’s re-framed the way I look at writing for a larger audience and has made me want to make a lot of changes to my Memoir.

It spins me out how being a writer is such a journey.

As writers, we are constantly observing, writing, recording, trying, failing and growing. It’s hard work (OMG it is hard!!!) but I think when we get someone responding to our posts (thank you to Tommy, Shanti, Ellie, Sara, Mykl, Catwoman, 1927Lady, Marquessa and so many others who are thoughtful and leave responses here) then it’s a huge high. It makes all the hard work worth it to reach a ‘reader’ who says “Hey, I really liked your article – great job”. I find SO MUCH JOY in connecting to someone.

Here’s to the next $10.00!!!